Overnight Energy: Spending package ends crude oil export ban

OIL IN THE OMNIBUS: Congressional leaders released a sweeping spending and taxation package early Wednesday morning, headlined by the end of the 40-year-old prohibition on crude oil exports.

Republicans negotiated the oil provision into the bill in exchange for, at least, the extension of expired or expiring tax credits for wind and solar energy. Both tax breaks will continue for five years as part of the deal.

Lifting the crude oil ban was a huge priority for Republicans and the oil industry, and both praised the decision on Wednesday.

{mosads}”Allowing oil exports is an important step forward in ensuring that our energy policies reflect our nation’s renewed abundance of resources,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chair Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said.

In a letter to lawmakers, the American Petroleum Institute said lifting the ban will “benefit American consumers and workers, and our allies across the globe.”

Critics of oil exports, though, remained opposed to the provision on Wednesday, even with the trade-off of expanded renewable energy tax credits.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus is “skeptical” of the omnibus deal given the inclusion of the export ban language, a Democratic aide said Wednesday.

“Allowing a five-year renewable energy tax credit extension is cold comfort to everyone who supports a forward-looking clean energy economy and an end to constant oil favoritism in Congress,” Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a CPC leader, said in a statement.

Green groups walked a fine line on the deal, with many hailing the expanded renewable energy credits while opposing the new oil language.

“Republican leaders made this one of their top priorities even though it benefits oil companies at the expense of American consumers and refinery workers,” Natural Resources Defense Council President Rhea Suh said. “The move flies in the face of other actions being taken to reduce oil use and attack climate change.”

Read more here and here.

ELSEWHERE IN THE OMNIBUS …

Oil exports weren’t the only energy and environment provisions in the funding bill.

— ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY funding will remain flat next year as part of the deal, and Republicans dropped their plans to use the spending bills to block agency rulemaking.

The EPA is funded at $8.1 billion in 2016, a level lower than it was in 2010 but on pace with 2015. GOP plans to block EPA rules governing power plant emissions and water oversight were also pulled from the package.

— THE LAND AND WATER CONSERVATION FUND won a three-year reauthorization in the bill.

The LWCF, a popular conservation program, expired on Sept. 30 amid House GOP plans to overhaul it.

Appropriators will give the program $450 million next year, or half the fund’s maximum $900 million annual budget.

— THE GREEN CLIMATE FUND, an international pool of money to help developing countries cope with climate change, wasn’t funded in the omnibus.

However, lawmakers didn’t block the Obama administration from using other discretionary spending accounts to underwrite its pledged contribution to the GCF.

Obama wanted Congress to appropriate $500 million for the fund in 2016. The White House said Wednesday that it believes it has the authority to find that money on its own.

“Based on what we have reviewed so far, there are no restrictions on our ability to make good on the president’s pledge to contribute to the Green Climate Fund,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

OBAMA, INDIAN PM TALK CLIMATE: President Obama continued his string of phone calls to world leaders on the Paris climate agreement Wednesday with a call to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the White House said.

“The president and prime minister each underscored the importance of implementing the agreement and working together in the future on climate change, including through the Mission Innovation initiative announced in Paris on Nov. 30,” the White House reported.

In recent days, Obama has spoken with the leaders of France, China, Brazil and the United Nations to talk about the Paris agreement.

EPA: CARS BEATING CARBON RULES: For the third year in a row, new vehicles sold in the 2014 model year beat the required carbon emissions standards, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Wednesday.

Cars emitted 274 grams per mile on average in 2014, 13 grams per mile better than that year’s mandate, the EPA said, a new record.

“It’s clear that our standards are working, spurring technology and innovation, and we are on track to achieve significant greenhouse gas reductions,” Christopher Grundler, director of the EPA’s office of transportation and air quality, said in a statement.

EPA cautioned that the figures reflect how vehicles were certified with the agency, and if Volkswagen Group’s ongoing emissions scandal shows that its carbon standards were wrong, the report will be edited.

ON TAP THURSDAY: The House is due to vote on the negotiated tax policy bill, which includes some important energy provisions.

AROUND THE WEB:

Esquire has an article about what it’s like to live in Beijing when smog is at its worst.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., a major oil and natural gas driller in Appalachia, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, citing oil and gas prices, the West Virginia State Journal reports.

Lawmakers in the United Kingdom voted Wednesday to allow hydraulic fracturing below national parks, Reuters reports.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Check out Wednesday’s stories…

-Sen. Boxer blocks chemical safety bill, angering Inhofe
-Critics seethe over end to oil export ban
-Funds for Obama climate deal survive in spending bill
-Conservation fund gets 3-year lifeline in spending bill
-Spending bill keeps EPA funding flat in 2016
-Spending deal to lift oil export ban

Please send tips and comments to Timothy Cama, tcama@digital-stage.thehill.com; and Devin Henry, dhenry@digital-stage.thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @Timothy_Cama, @dhenry, @thehill